Europe through enlightened green power policies has installed massive Renewable Energy capacities in wind and solar power. Though there have been some issues and the costs of setting up the heavy wind and solar sector have been high, these green power generators are paying off handsomely. Solar Energy has been contributing heavily to Germany’s electricity power mix, thanks to 7 GW of solar power being installed annually in the last 3 years making Germany the world’s biggest solar energy country. France too despite it nuclear resistance has managed to install a good amount of solar and wind power.

So it is not surprising to find that wholesale electricity prices in Europe are falling as solar and wind power reduces the demand for fossil fuel power. Prices for power are being reduced despite outages in coal and gas power plants. This is directly contradicting renewable energy critics who cite green power as a total waste of taxpayer money which generates little useful power.

European spot electricity prices fell sharply on Thursday on the back of big increases in wind and solar output forecasts, coinciding with the end of week slow-down in industrial activity, traders said.

The German electricity contract for Friday delivery plunged by 22 euros to 31.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) in the over-the-counter market while the French contract eased by 8.25 euros to 45.50 euros/MWh.A number of outages in gas and coal-fired power plants did not outweigh the trend. This includes RWE’s brown-coal fired Weisweiler G of 590 MW capacity, where an unscheduled outage is due to likely last to Sept. 15.

Sneha Shah

I am Sneha, the Editor-in-chief for the Blog. We would be glad to receive suggestions, inputs & comments on GWI from you guys to keep it going! You can contact me for consultancy/trade inquires by writing an email to greensneha@yahoo.in or call me on +913340606492.

Great to hear renewable energy taking a bigger chunk of power away from coal, oil and nuclear. Why is it that solar power has caught on to such as extent in Europe and not in North America? Better government incentives?